If you asked me why the country can’t come together over a long-term fiscal fix, I would say it has to do with the fact that Paul Ryan is an Ayn Rand devotée who wants to minimize taxes on the rich and it’s not possible to do this without completely abrogating the federal government’s existing social policy commitments. That’s why Ryan wrote down a plan that would, in fact, complete abrogate the federal government’s existing social policy commitments. But both Paul Ryan and Barack Obama spend some time courting New York Times columnist David Brooks, and apparently Ryan whined to him that he’s never even been invited to lunch!

President Obama and Paul Ryan are two of the smartest, most admirable and most genial men in Washington. It is sad, although not strange, that in today’s Washington they have never had a serious private conversation. The president has never invited Ryan over even for lunch.

Apparently a presidential lunch invitation is all it would take to persuade Rep Ryan to drop his fanatical adherence to a lower taxes for rich people agenda! Millions of poor Americans may lose their Medicaid coverage over this faux pas. Medicare will be eliminated over the absence of a lunch date! Under the circumstances, shouldn’t Brooks himself just invite these two over for lunch? He could even do it wacky sitcom style and not tell either of them that the other guy’s coming. I’ll pay the tab, whatever.